Jesal Toral is a 1971 Indian Gujarati devotional film written and directed by Ravindra Dave. It proved to be one of the biggest hits of Gujarati cinema and ran for 25 weeks in theatres.
Ravindra Dave had planned to remake his Hindi blockbuster film Nagina (1951) with Leena Chandavarkar and Sanjay Khan, but the project was delayed.[2][3] As a result, he turned his production crew to Gujarati cinema to keep them employed.[4]
The film is based on local folk legend of bandit Jesal Jadeja who was preached and reformed by Kathi saint-woman Toral. Their memorial shrines are located in Anjar in Kutch district, Gujarat. It was the first Eastmancolor Gujarati film and was a debut film of Upendra Trivedi and Ramesh Mehta.[2][3][1] It was shot in Orvo technicolor. As the Laxmi Studio at Baroda was not yet commissioned, the film was partly shot in Kutch and partly in Mumbai.[5]
The song "Dhuni Re Dhakhavi" became very popular.[7]
Release and reception
The film was released in 1971.[5] The film was exempted from the tax by the Government of Gujarat to encourage production of the Gujarati films.[5]
The film proved to be one of the biggest hits of Gujarati cinema[2][3] and ran for 25 weeks in theatres. It won 17 awards from the Government of Gujarat. The film is considered to have revived the Gujarati cinema. Dave went on to direct more than 25 Gujarati films and never returned to Hindi cinema.[4][8][2]
^Vaghela, Shailendra Manshukhlal (16 April 2019). "જન્મશતાબ્દી / ગુજરાતી ફિલ્મોના સુવર્ણયુગના શિલ્પી રવીન્દ્ર દવે" [Janmashatabdi / Gujarati Filmona Suvarnayugna Shilpi Ravindra Dave]. Divya Bhaskar. Birth Centenary: Ravindra Dave The Architect of the Golden Age of Gujarati Cinema (in Gujarati). Archived from the original on 10 May 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
